Those NASA guys could have saved a bunch of money if they had just gotten one of these at amazon and selected free prime shipping
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U3-Vc-gf0Ck
Overall, NASA has become so un-xyz (fill in the blank) that I do not pay as much attention as before. Elon Musk and SpaceX reminds me of Robert Heinlein. Some of SpaceX ‘failures were just to determine how far something could be pushed before it broke, burst, exploded, etc. SpaceX has reused a single first stage 14 times!!
JPL in Kalifornia still can do amazing things. Opportunity rover planned operation was 90 days. It lasted 13-14 years! The Ingenuity helicopter is a test to determine if we could even fly a few feet. It has flown where no one has flown before.
Someday our Sun will enlarge, and our planet will not survive. SpaceX is pushing us out into the universe, where we have to go. I just hope NASA does not hinder SpaceX any more than they already have.
The new software will use Ingenuity’s downward-facing camera to detect risky objects before landing and steer Ingenuity to avoid them, allowing the chopper to use smaller airfields.
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These guys must be geniuses! /s